The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, reportedly due soon for a major earthquake. (Shutterstock)

(Newser)
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At least three major faults in the San Francisco Bay Area seem to be stuck—and when they come unstuck, they could wreak major havoc, NBC News reports. There's an almost 70% chance that one of four "locked" sections of the Hayward, Rodgers Creek, and Green Valley faults could rupture over the next 30 years, says Jim Lienkaemper, the lead author of a study published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, with the Hayward Fault currently causing the most concern because of the population and infrastructure in its proximity. "A large earthquake on the Hayward Fault would affect the entire San Francisco Bay Area—over 5 million people," an earth sciences professor at Stanford University tells NBC. Sudden ruptures on the other faults would have similarly catastrophic effects, including possibly cutting off drinking water to the area.

When everything's working as it should, the North American Plate in California pushes past the Pacific Plate without much hubbub; in fact, the Pacific Plate's 38mm-per-year movement means that LA could, in millions of years, end up crammed next to San Francisco. But "fault creep"—the movement of the fault segments—sometimes stalls, and "stress will build until it is released by an earthquake," Phys.org reports; three of the fault sections discussed in this study are seeing less than 1mm of creep each year. Experts hope this study will motivate local governments and businesses to earthquake-proof their buildings, though one professor at the University of California–Santa Barbara worries that "within the next 30 years" doesn't suggest the urgency that might be warranted, NBC notes. "What they need to think about is that it could happen tomorrow or a week from tomorrow. … Inevitably there will be an earthquake," he says. (The East Coast may be due for a big temblor soon, too.)

love the title but shouldn’t it read " sh1t you need to worry about that may never happen in your life "

Ezekiel 25:17

Oct 14, 2014 3:41 PM CDT

So they have been retrofitting old sky scrapers with huge springs and pneumatic dampers just in case of the big one. But officials are more worried about the 4 or 5 story apartment buildings that tend to collapse on the lower floors. That happened in the last major shakeup. By the way, THE GREAT SHAKE OUT is this Thursday at 10:16 AM. http://www.shakeout.org/ --------------- Drop, Cover, and Hold On: Drop to the ground, take Cover under a table or desk, and Hold On to it as if a major earthquake were happening (stay down for at least 60 seconds). Practice now so you will immediately protect yourself during earthquakes! --------------- Ok, the commercial is over. So one way that builders can make the 4 story buildings safer is to stiffen up their frame especially if it is being held up only by reinforced concrete supports. It needs to be retrofitted with a dampened steel frame. As for brick buildings, you can spray a thick shellack on the outside and inside and then run wire mesh to stiffen it from collapsing. You can drill several holes through so that the mesh is supported from both sides.

Tengu ?? Slayer of Vanity

Oct 14, 2014 2:53 PM CDT

Lived in the Bay Area for a time. Quake preparedness is the last thing on people's minds....